Skelmersdale United had a mixed week of results, firstly beating Matlock Town 3-2 at home in the league on Saturday before falling to a 2-1 loss away to Mickleover Sports on Tuesday night.

A pleasing performance and result on Saturday lead to a 3-2 victory and, for the time being, pushed Skem back in to the play-off places in the Evo-Stik Premier Division table.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, however. Skelmersdale went in to the half time interval one-nil down thanks to a Danny Holland strike, in a move which originated from Danny Mitchley rocked the Matlock crossbar at the other end of the pitch.

However, three goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half from Mitchey, Almond and Louis Corrigan swung the tie back in the favour of the home side, who were able to hang on for the victory despite Matlock pulling a goal back in the 63 minute through Ted Cribley’s effort.

Manager Tommy Lawson commented that his side played good football for the whole 90 minutes of the match, despite undeservedly going in to the half time interval 1-0 down.

He said: “Matlock have had a really good start to the season it was a good game and good contest.

“I’ve never known it, but their manager actually apologised when they went in for half time 1-0 up. But we didn’t lose our focus, we came out with the same sort of intent as what we showed in the first half.

“When we went 3-1 up they threw everything at us, because they had nothing to lose, and we were forced to defend which I think we did particularly well.”

On Tuesday, however, a late goal from a 10-man Mickleover Sports side was enough to condemn Skem to defeat.

After going in to the half time interval level, the hosts took the lead in the 78 minute. That lead was short-lived though, as Chris Almond equalised for United just a minute later.

The home side again took the lead late in the match and, despite Skem hitting the crossbar just afterwards, the match was won.

Lawson said that two penalties early in the match which weren’t given to his side had a large bearing on the outcome of the match.

He said: “It was really disappointing, we had two unbelievable shouts for penalties early on, and those early decisions make a massive difference to the game.

“They hit us on the counter and scored, we got one back which was a great team goal. They got another one and we went up the other end immediately and hit the bar. It was a good display but an unfortunate result.”

This weekend, Skelmersdale United are involved in FA Cup action when they travel to Glossop North End on Saturday in the First Qualifying Round.

Lawson is expecting a tough fixture against a side who are unbeaten so far this season.

He added: “We’ve had the benefit of playing them in pre-season so we know their game and their players. They had a particularly good season last year and they’ve took it in to this year and credit to them.

“We’ve got quite a few players who might miss the game through injury, so we’ll know tomorrow a little bit more on that.”